Religion Without Quantum Physics Is an Incomplete Picture of Reality: Dalai Lama

Religion Without Quantum Physics Is an Incomplete 

Picture of Reality

Dalai Lama on Quantum Physics 

A Buddhist standpoint

Original Article by Daniel Oberhaus at Vice|Motherboard

The Dalai Lama has never been a stranger to science, and throughout his tenure as Tibet’s leader in exile he has advocated for the collusion of science and Eastern philosophy (even Chairman Mao commended the Dalai Lama for his “scientific mind” directly after reminding His Holiness that “religion is poison”). This intersection of interests was manifest in the diversity of His audience, which was comprised of roughly 150 Tibetan bhikkhus, academics, and students who had piled into the conference center at Jawaharlal Nehru University to listen to the Dalai Lama and a panel of physicists and monastic scholars discuss the intersection of quantum physics and Madhyamaka Buddhist philosophy.

Watch the video excerpts of the conference below (not available in its entirety at the time of writing this article. If a full length video is found, it will be duly updated.)

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In Madhyamaka thought, all things are empty insofar as they lack any inherent essence or existence. This emptiness applies not just to people and things, but also to the analytic categories which are used to describe them. According to Nagarjuna, (founder of the Madhyamaka school of thought) this emptiness is the product of the dependent origination of all things. In other words, all phenomena lack their own inherent existence because their very existence is dependent on the conditions that gave rise to them.

If you’re confused as to just what these ancient philosophies on the nature of reality have to do with contemporary quantum physics, you can head to the original article for more details of the discussion at the two day conference.